Risk Score

A risk score is a single summary value, usually on a defined scale, that represents a wallet's or transaction's overall likelihood of illicit involvement, calculated by combining multiple underlying findings (sanctions exposure, risk labels, behavioral patterns, and hop distance) into one number.

What it means

A well-constructed risk score is not a black box average of unrelated signals, it should weight findings by severity and confidence, so a single direct sanctions match dominates the score regardless of how many minor, low-confidence signals are also present. The methodology behind how a score combines its inputs matters as much as the score itself.

A risk score is inherently a simplification, useful for triage and prioritization but not a substitute for reviewing the underlying findings behind it. Two wallets can arrive at a similar numeric score through very different combinations of evidence, and a responsible screening tool always makes those underlying findings visible alongside the final number.

Real-world example

A wallet with a single low-confidence suspicious-service label might score similarly on some scales to one with several moderate findings combined, which is exactly why reviewing the individual findings behind a score, alongside the number, matters before making a decision.

Related terms

• Attribution Confidence
• Hop Distance
• Wallet Screening

In FreezeRadar

FreezeRadar's scoring methodology, published in full at /methodology/scoring, explains exactly how each finding type is weighted into a wallet's overall risk score.

Check a wallet now